A brother's love
by CurtisMcQueen8
Summary: Thor arrives at Stark Tower in the middle of the battle against the Chitauri to stop his brother and this time, he realizes that Loki is being mind-controlled and he gives it his everything to shake him out of it. But neither of them is prepared for what happens when Loki wakes.
1. Bring your brother home

**This is an idea that came to me yesterday morning after reading ****TamaraJagellovsk's story "Purpose" ****even though the idea of Loki being tortured like this is something that has been my headcanon for a while now (and it also comes up in my main fic Beyond Mischief). This thing is not really fleshed out (it was supposed to be an OS) and I don't know if I can or will take it any further (like Thor defending Loki against the Avengers and later Odin), so it would be helpful for me to know what you think of it.**

**I do not own anything etc. etc.**

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**"There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother."**

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Thor lands on Stark Tower, Mjölnir firmly gripped in his right hand. Loki is standing on Iron Man's landing spot, that accursed scepter of unknown origin that could possibly do damage of proportions hitherto undreamt of firmly gripped in his.

Thor yells his brother's name, the battle raging above, beneath and all around them.

Loki turns towards him with a pinched face. A foreign face. A haunted face. A face that bears no resemblance to the face of his beloved little brother who let go of Gungnir and plunged into the abyss of space until the void between the branches of Yggdrasil devoured his body.

"Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it," Thor commands, his voice trembling with anger. Anger and disbelief. He mourned for him, he watched his mother succumb to grief until she finally found a way to locate him and then he watched Frigga succumb to panic when she realized that wherever Loki was, he was suffering, and Thor's heart breaks all over again when he remembers how she has been pleading with him to bring her youngest son home.

But Loki does not want to come home. Loki no longer thinks of Asgard as his home or of Thor as his brother.

"You can't," Loki replies in a soft growl that is as foreign as his face. "There is no stopping it." He points the scepter at Thor, the spaceships of his—his?—alien army swirling through the sky behind his frame. "There is only," Loki continues, his breathing heavy, "the war."

No, Loki no longer listens to reason.

"So be it," says Thor because Loki is no longer Loki.

The person whose body strains into attack mode and lunges at him with the fierce roar of a feline predator is not his brother and Thor acts on pure instinct when he raises Mjölnir and smashes the hammer against the scepter, uru clattering against metal.

Loki fights back and parts of the building crumble away beneath them, crashing to the ground. Thor does not understand what is happening or what has happened or what might possibly happen, so he merely ducks Loki's blows and deals out his own until Loki grabs him by the neck and then hurls him away, smashing him onto the ground in order to level the scepter at an approaching Midgardian aircraft.

A wave of sizzling blue energy shoots out from the weapon's tip and crashes into the wing of the aircraft, instantly setting it on fire and sending it spiraling downwards.

Thor scrambles to his feet, his fair falling into his face. He gazes at Loki through the strands of his hair, gazes at this foreign version of his brother, and then his body moves of its own accord as a wave of strength floods through him and he hurls himself at Loki with his full weight, an angry roar rumbling out of his mouth.

Loki defends himself vigorously and Thor cannot stop himself from ramming his fists and his hammer into his estranged little brother's armored chest again and again and again until, finally, Loki falters. The scepter clatters to the ground.

"_Look_ at this!" Thor cries, pressing Loki against the wall with the hilt of Mjölnir. "Look around you!"

Loki complies and his gaze sweeps the cityscape succumbing to the wrath of battle, taking in the fires and the smoke, and his mouth and eyes gape wide open in shock; consternation; disbelief; fear. Above all, fear. And suddenly, Thor sees his little brother again in those eyes. It is only a brief flash but he sees the brother who let go of his life and his past and his family because he felt there was nothing on Asgard worth holding onto.

"Do you think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor presses on, his voice desperate, his breath hitching.

Loki's gaze lands on Thor and the bottom drops out of the Thundergod's stomach when he sees the confusion and terror on his brother's pale face.

"It's too late," Loki growls softly, his breathing getting heavier, and Thor can see tears glistering in his eyes. "It's too late to stop it."

Loki's lips twitch as if there is more he wants to say but he remains silent and Thor just stares at him because, _by all the Realms, how could it come to this?_ Loki's breath comes in sharp gasps now as panic rises up inside of him, glaring at Thor from in his blue eyes. Loki has not meant any of this to happen, Thor realizes, finally realizes, and the understanding slams into his gut like a barrow's load of uru. Loki never means things to happen, never means for his schemes to go awry and wreak havoc, but this is different. He is not doing any of this of his own free will. Thor has suspected this earlier but now he is sure.

_Bring him home_, Frigga's voice echoes through his skull. _I know he is in pain_. _Someone is_ … _Please, bring your brother __**home**__, my love_.

"No," says Thor, his voice softening. "We can. Together."

His brother's confused eyes lock with his, his breath coming in rapid, shallow gasps, and a tear spills out of his eye.

"Loki," Thor whispers urgently.

A spark of madness flares up in his brother's eyes and Thor throws Mjölnir away so that he can reach for Loki's neck with both of his hands. As soon as his fingers touch his brother's skin beneath the cheek guard of his helmet, Thor feels the presence of someone else, someone malicious and ruthless, and a cold sweat of fear starts pouring down his back.

"Loki, listen to me," Thor pleads, panic creeping into his voice. "You might not remember anything of our past but you are my brother and I want you to come home." His voice hitches on the last word and tears well into his eyes.

Loki stares at him with nothing but naked terror in his eyes, his face pinched and pale. His skin vibrates against Thor's palms and even though the God of Thunder is not half as versed in magic as his mother and brother, he understands that the someone whose presence he feels is conversing with Loki and that Loki is fighting that presence. Fighting and losing.

"Loki, please," Thor cries out and then yanks his brother's helmet off his head and flings it on the ground. "Listen to me, please."

Loki shakes his head, a vague and clumsy movement. Thor blows out a breath and touches his brother's forehead. He never saw a merit in wielding sorcery and he does not know how to perform any thought projection or memory manipulation spells but he knows that he must try anyway.

Frigga would want him to try. Frigga needs him to try. Frigga depends on him to bring Loki home and he cannot betray his mother's confidence. He cannot come home without his little brother.

"Mother sent me here," Thor whispers.

Loki's lips part and he blinks, the foreign bright blue of his eyes slowly paling into green.

"She sent me here because she misses you. She knows you are alive," Thor hurries on, his words almost tumbling over themselves. "She wants you back. _I_ want you back. You might think that you no longer belong to this family but you do! You _do_!"

_Liar_, booms a deep, menacing voice inside Loki's head, and Thor flinches, almost jerking his hand away. _They did not want you then and they do not want you know_. _They cast you out, they threw you away and they never came for you_.

"Be silent!" Thor screams.

_Do you not understand that you need to finish what you came to Earth to do to prove your worth to them? _

Loki's eyes narrow and the flicker of blue returns.

"Loki, no," Thor pleads softly.

_Your brother thinks you weak, needy, and vulnerable_. _Can you not see it in his eyes how much he despises your weakness right now?_

"I do not!" Thor screams and shakes Loki violently, his heart thundering against his ribcage. "Be silent, you wretched monster! Loki, please." His voice almost breaks. "Do not listen to that voice! Listen to _me_! Listen to your _brother_!

_He threw you into the void_.

Tears well into Loki's eyes and, suddenly, Thor can see what Loki saw and he can feel what Loki felt: He sees his own face, distorted, a devilish grin on his lips, his eyes full of contempt as he spits, "Monsters have no place in Asgard, Loki," and then he hurls Loki into the abyss of space and Loki's heart is shattering in his chest and the pain deadens him, hollowing him out, carving out his very soul, and stars are speeding by in a blur and Loki loses all sense of time and space and then there is a barren planet and a cave and pain, just pain, and nothing else but pain and his body is dying of thirst and his bones are breaking and his face is throbbing and the skin of his lips breaks open and there is the taste of blood, metallic and sharp, and it trickles down his throat and he almost chokes on it and there is no love and no emotions and no desire to hold on to anything because _You are a monster and you are unworthy and no one will come to your rescue because they never loved you because of the MONSTER that you are underneath that delicate Asgardian face that you wear as a guise and they are glad that you are gone because you are a MONSTER! MONSTER! MONSTER!_

Thor feels vomit shooting up his throat and it costs him everything to swallow it down and not to break into tears or faint.

_Kill him_, commands the voice. _Kill the brother that never loved you_.

Loki is crying tonelessly but his stare is blank and he is not moving, almost as if this presence lurking in the depth of his mind has finally broken him. Thor shakes his brother, gently, and he does not realize that he is crying until he speaks and his words come out between sobs. "I never tossed you into the abyss," Thor says, his voice hitching. "That is a lie! These are all lies! I wouldn't. Not _ever_. Look at me!" He grabs him by the shoulders. "Look at me, Loki! You are my brother. You are my family." He clasps Loki's neck and tries to lock eyes with him and he thinks that he can see a modicum of sanity left in his brother's empty eyes and he softly brushes his lips against Loki's ice-cold forehead. "I love you."

These three words jolt Loki with such an intensity that Thor flinches. Loki draws a sharp breath and then another and another, all color draining from his face.

"I love you," Thor repeats but he cannot be sure that his brother is hearing him because Loki's entire body is trembling, vibrating really, and he is gasping for air as if he were choking.

_Pathetic_, whispers the voice on a condescending chuckle before it finally fades away and then Loki's eyes close and his entire body goes limp and he crumbles to the ground.

"Loki?" Thor asks, panic creeping into his blood as he slides down besides his brother, who is finally his brother again, and his hands clumsily reach out to hold him. But Loki is not conscious. He is not breathing. He is_ … No … _

"Loki?"

No answer.

"Loki!"

_Please, bring your brother __**home**__, my love. _

"LOKI!"

And finally, Loki stirs and glances up at him with confused green eyes. "Brother?" he whispers.

"Yes," Thor laughs through his tears, a wave of relief washing over him. "Yes, I am here."

Loki closes his eyes again and a trembling breath escapes his lips. "T-take t-the s-scepter," he gasps and Thor senses that it costs his brother everything to speak these words and he wishes that he could take all that pain away from him, "t-take it … it will … c-close … b-bring it t-to … Sel …vig."

"The scepter can close the portal?" asks Thor and Loki gives a weak nod.

"I will," says Thor. "Just hold on, alright? _Please_ hold on."

Loki nods once more but he is already losing consciousness again.


	2. Do you know who I am?

**Since this got some response, I've decided to continue it. I have an idea for a plot now that involves Thor hunting down Thanos and I think I can take this somewhere. But please be prepared, I will heap all the whump in the world on our favorite trickster god in this one. And on Thor too because, well, he needs to suffer. They both need to suffer. We all need to suffer! *snickers in evil***

**Oh, and this is canon divergence so the council wasn't cold-blooded enough to wanna launch a strike against the civilian population of Manhattan and the portal doesn't need to stay open until Tony gets the nuke through.**

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**"Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us." ~ David Richo**

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"Thor?" whispers Erik Selvig when the Thundergod lands on the upper roof of Stark Tower where the scientist has built the machine that is harnessing and stabilizing the Tesseract's energy in order to keep the portal open. His handiwork is whirring and sizzling with the energy of the mighty cube, shooting a pillar of light into the sky.

"Wh-what d-did I," Selvig stammers, glancing at Thor for support. He looks confused and shaken but the doctor's eyes too have lost their blue sheen.

"It wasn't your doing," Thor hurries to say because there is only one thing on his mind and that is Loki, who is lying unconscious below them with his body drained by the weapon in Thor's hand and his mind poisoned by the mysterious voice who has been in command of it this entire time. "You have been made into a tool, just like my brother." He holds the weapon out to Selvig. "Loki said the scepter can shut it down."

The scientist is slowly collecting himself with deep breaths but he still shoots Thor a wary glance. "B-but your brother …"

"Enough, Erik," Thor commands and the other man flinches from the deep, commanding tone of his voice. "We do not have any time to spare. Close the portal. The time for explanations will come soon enough."

The scientist stares at the scepter between them with an expression of awe as if he has never seen it before for a few heartbeats but then recognition flashes across his face. "I built in a safety," he mumbles and his breathing is heavy, "to cut their power source … The energy of the scepter can deflect the energy of the cube … He told me this … Why did Loki tell me to …"

"Just shut it off, please," Thor urges him and Selvig gives a hesitant nod before he walks up to the machine, flips open a computer screen and taps a few keys until the safety he spoke of materializes around the machine harnessing the Tesseract's energy in a translucent shield. He nods at Thor and then at the scepter, saying, "Right at the crown."

Thor blows out a breath, pokes the scepter through the barrier and feels the energy of the cube answering to it. A crackle comes from the artifacts, sounding almost as if they are conversing in a language of electrical impulses, and Thor can feel the scepter's hilt vibrating with their magic, their raw power biting into the skin of his palms.

_This is ancient magic_, Thor realizes as the pillar of light trembles, sending a shockwave into the sky._ Ancient magic_ _predating the order of this universe, predating even Asgard_. He gazes up as the portal closes, its edges looking like dark veins against the blue sky before it shrinks up with a deafening rumble and, then, simply vanishes from sight as if it has never even existed in the first place.

Below, on the streets, people are throwing their arms up into the air, crying out tonelessly.

Thor heaves a sigh of relief and then directs his attention back at Loki, who … is no longer there. Thor's lips gape open in confusion. "How can he," he whispers in astonishment. He knows he shouldn't be surprised because that is what Loki always does, isn't it, he casts illusions to play tricks on people's minds and disappears into the air shrouded by a spell and shapeshifts into a raven that sits down on the windowsill to spy on him when he has private conversations with the Lady Sif, but only moments ago he was too exhausted to even keep his eyes open. He couldn't have possibly … Or could he? Thor is not sure—Loki is resourceful and resilient, he can do pretty much anything—but thinking about the mind games Loki used to play on him makes him realize, or maybe not realize, but certainly understand to some extent that everything his little brother has suffered through, every little bit of terror and agony he has seen and felt during the past year, might finally shatter his fragile mind.

Thor drops the scepter, reaches for Mjölnir and leaps down from the upper roof, his heart beating in his throat. Just as his boots land on the concrete with a thud, a movement registers on the periphery of his vision and he turns around to see the Hulk jump on the roof and run past him in a blur of green.

"Oh no," Thor gasps and charges after the beast into Tony Stark's quarters, where Loki is on the floor, crawling away from the war he has unleashed, crawling on all fours like an animal or a helpless child. Seeing his proud brother brought so low turns Thor's stomach once again.

"Banner, no!" Thor bellows. He is already swinging Mjölnir and when the Hulk makes no move to stop, he hurls it after him but the beast turns around, roaring at him as it catches the norndamned hammer. "Must smash the enemy!"

"He is not the enemy, okay?" Thor gasps as he summons Mjölnir back into his hand. "Not anymore!" He thinks about unleashing a thunderbolt but Loki is too close and, by Odin's Ravens, he doesn't even look up. He just keeps crawling and then the Hulk picks him up by the feet with his giant green meat hooks and his brother exhales a shaky breath but he is not speaking. He is just staring, his eyes blank and wide open.

"Alright, put him down!" Thor roars, swinging his hammer, just for emphasis really, because he knows he cannot really attack as long as the Hulk is holding his brother.

The Hulk merely stares at him, his face an angry grimace. "Must smash the enemy," the beast repeats.

"He is _not_ the enemy," repeats Thor, through clenched teeth.

"Wait, did we miss something?" comes from Agent Romanoff who has made it to the tower with Barton. She scrunches up her nose, eying him warily, and Thor can almost smell their distrust.

"You did, yes," Thor presses out, anger rising inside of him at the sight of the Hulk holding his brother upside down like a lifeless doll, with Loki's head facing the ground. "What he did to you," Thor snaps at Barton, "it was done to him as well. He was under the influence of that scepter himself!" He glares at the Hulk. "Now, put him _down_!"

"Put him down," agrees Stark, who comes flying in through the door. "He clearly isn't a threat anymore right now."

The Hulk grumbles.

"Put him down!" Thor demands again and, finally, the beast obliges with an exasperated grunt and flings Loki back onto the ground, his golden armor clanging against the stone floor.

Thor drops his hammer and to his knees, feeling for his brother's pulse. "Loki?" he whispers. "Can you hear me?"

But Loki just stares. Damn it all, he just stares, his eyes unfocused.

Thor shakes him but he gets no response except for a soft whimpering noise that rams an icy splinter of fear into his heart.

_Bring your brother home, my love_. He can almost hear Frigga's voice, can almost hear the panic seeping into her words. _But not like this! What happened to him? Why didn't you __**save**__ him?_

"Care to elaborate?" Tony Stark asks as his Iron Man helmet disintegrates, revealing a face pinched up with suspicion.

Thor looks up at the mortal and his chest yawns open at the recollection of Loki's false memories and all his pain. So much pain. "I am going to take my brother back to Asgard," Thor announces, his gaze hiking up the building where the Tesseract and the scepter are still with Erik Selvig. "I need to take him to the healing room there as quickly as possible."

"The healing room?" echoes Barton.

"I don't know how you felt after you shook off the scepter's influence but I dare say you've also felt a little drained," Thor grumbles. "Loki fell into space a year ago." Thor harrumphs because he knows how outrageous this must sound to their kind. "He has been untraceable for almost a year and we thought him dead until he came here with the Tesseract's aid and I fear that he has been poisoned by this scepter for all this time."

"By whom?" asks Steve Rogers, who is just now joining them.

"I do not know that yet," Thor admits. "But I heard his voice inside Loki's head and he …" _Tortured his body and raped his mind until there was nothing left but this helpless creature who is cowering on the floor, gazing up with no flicker of recognition in his dead, empty eyes_. "He broke him."

Romanoff swallows.

"I don't know who he is but I will find him and I will kill him with my bare hands for what he has done to my brother and your world," Thor growls. "And now I will take these artifacts that are infested with ancient magic and that are too powerful and too dangerous to remain on your world to my father and Loki to my mother." He stretches out his hand and softly touches his brother's shoulder. "Are you ready to come home with me?"

"Not a chance," says Tony Stark. "You can't just—"

"Look at him, Tony!" Thor roars and his voice breaks. "Just _look_ at him!" A tremor of trepidation rocks his body—because what if Loki stays like this, what if his smart, sassy little brother never awakes again and what if his brilliant mind remains shattered forever and can't be pieced back together, not even by the Asgardian healers or Frigga's healing spells—and his shivering startles Loki. He blinks and turns away, and he starts crawling again.

"Where are you going?" Thor asks him softly, nurturing a tiny hope that, at some point, Loki will reply.

"Away," his brother breathes so quietly that Thor thinks he might have imagined it.

"Okay, this is …" Stark's voice trails off and he walks over to Loki, crouching down in front of him. "Hey, can you hear us?" Thor watches and his entire body tenses as Stark snaps his fingers in front of Loki's face. "Is somebody in there?"

Loki exhales another trembling breath. "W-why?" He blinks again. "I d-don't even know … who you are."

"How convenient," Clint Barton grumbles. The Black Widow puts her hand on his arm to comfort him and they turn away towards Steve Rogers, who doesn't really look as if he knows what to do with himself now that the battle is over and who also looks slightly embarrassed to see Loki in such a state of raw, unguarded vulnerability even though he has fought him until moments ago.

"Do you know who _I_ am?" Thor whispers and he is so afraid of the answer that his heart sits physically heavy inside his chest.

"The mighty Thor," says Loki but his voice is flat, as if there is no emotion attached to the knowledge any longer. "The son of Odin. The Thunderer. The crown prince of the Aesir."

Thor nods. "And do you know who you are?"

This time, there is no response. Loki just stares.

"You are my brother," Thor says and he puts his hands on his brother's shoulders again. "You are Loki. Odinson. And I'm going to take you home now. Home to Asgard."

Loki's lips part and he shakes his head. "No."

A lump forms in Thor's throat and he tries to swallow it down. "Do you remember Asgard?"

A vague nod.

"Do you remember our mother? Frigga?" Thor elaborates when Loki gives no response. "The queen?"

Another vague nod.

"She is waiting for you," Thor continues and his words come out in a voice that is thick with held back tears because, by Odin's all-seeing eye, he can't break down now that his brother needs him to be strong enough for both of them. "At home. We need to get you home, okay, so that she can take care of …" Words fail him when he realizes that he is talking to his brother as if he were a small child and Loki shakes his head again, whispering, "Not to Asgard."

Thor's first impulse is to scoop his brother up and drag him back home anyway but then it crosses his mind that Loki did not think of Asgard as his home anymore even before that evil creature laid hands upon him and poisoned his mind with the lie that he means nothing to his family, and Thor remembers the day he lost him, the day Loki let go of his sanity because he probably feared that Odin would send him back to Jotunheim and that Thor would slay him for the monster he thought he was and Thor thinks about how these thoughts festered in his brother's subconscious until their poisonous fumes wafted into his conscious thinking and he felt there was no reason to hold on to his life. He thinks about how this was the Loki that the monster found; a proud, intelligent, strong God, broken by the revelation that he was the bloodson of a giant whom he has grown up to think of as evil and monstrous and hideous; not worthy of anything but hatred and contempt.

No, Loki no longer thinks of Asgard as his home. By Hel, his mind has apparently shut itself off enough for him to forget his relation to the Asgardians because these memories are too threatening and too painful and if Thor brings him back against his will, he might break what is left of his heart and he can't do that to him. Not after everything … else that was done to him.

"Do you want to stay here?" Thor asks and glances at Stark, who nods even as Natasha, Steve and Clint break out into a murmur of objections. "Last time I checked, this building is mine and I can invite whoever I want," says Tony.

But Loki shakes his head.

"Where do you want to go, then?" Thor asks and there is a brief flicker in Loki's empty eyes. Thor's stomach clenches when he mentally steels himself for the answer.

"Back," Loki whispers and Thor's heart plummets to the bottom of his stomach with such force that he gags. "Back to Him."


	3. No help from Asgard

Thor cannot believe what he is hearing and his body itches to grab Loki by the shoulders and shake him and smash him against a wall until all the dislodged parts of his mind miraculously reconnect but he forces himself to proceed with a gentle caution that costs him almost all of his strength. "Why?" he whispers. "Why would you want to go back _there_?"

Loki gives no response and Thor can only assume that his little brother wants to go back to the pain, that terrible, terrible mind-shattering pain that would pose a threat to even the strongest person's sanity, and his stomach churns once more and he remembers the deep, menacing sound of that voice in his ears and he shivers and it takes all he has to swallow the vomit down.

_Back to Him_.

_Back to __**Him**_.

Back to Him, Him with a capital H, which implies that Loki thinks of that monster as some sort of deity and which makes his whole nightmare even more terrifying.

"So we're really buying this, uh," grumbles Clint Barton and Thor's hand fists with the desire to crash into the archer's face.

"I think we are, yes," replies Steve. "After everything that's happened with this guy, I don't think he would put on a show that makes him look so weak and so vulnerable."

"Not in a million years," Thor hisses through clenched teeth. Distant thunder rumbles across the sky, the Hulk roars at the sound, and then changes back into Bruce Banner, who tumbles over to the bar and sits down on one of the chairs, his breathing heavy.

"Have you tried to smack him real hard in the head?" Natasha asks, to which Clint grunts. "Hey, that is how I got him out of your head, right?" She locks eyes with Thor then, her gaze fierce and intense, and the God of Thunder recognizes that she knows the truth. That woman in front of him knows that his brother has been tortured. "Maybe cognitive recalibration gets that other person out of your brother's head too."

"You know this term is not a thing, right?" Stark asks back.

_That other person_, Thor echoes silently. _No, this is not a person_. _This is a monster and I will hunt it down with my last and every breath_, _I swear it_. "He's already shaken off the influence."

"Has he?" Natasha presses him. "If he were free, why would he want to go back to someone who poisoned his mind?"

Thor glances at Loki, who has poised in a half-sitting, half-lying position on the floor and is staring blankly into space, giving no sign of awareness that he knows they are talking about him.

_That is a very good question_, _isn't it?_

Steve Rogers glances at his shield and then searches for Thor's gaze. It has been his first impulse too, yes. Just smack some sense into him and if that doesn't work, Thor thinks as he gazes up onto the roof where Selvig still stands, forlorn and confused and dehydrated, if that doesn't work, he will bring Loki back to Asgard even if that is against his will because he doesn't know what else to do and he feels horrifyingly helpless and he needs the advice and the comfort of his mother and Loki does too because, at the end of the day, if there is anyone in all the realms who can breach the walls he has built around his mind, it is Frigga.

Thor gives a nod. "I'm sorry, Loki, but we're trying to help you, okay? This will hurt."

A brief flicker in his brother's eyes, a vague nod.

And then, when Steve whacks him over the head with his vibranium shield, there is actually a smile; a smile that is almost melancholic, plucking at Loki's lips.

Steve's mouth gapes open when Loki's blank stare searches for his eyes. "Please don't stop," Loki whispers softly, intimately almost, and Thor knows that he is going to explode if he has to hear Loki begging to be hurt one more time, and he rises to his feet and says, "That's it. I'm going to get the Tesseract and the scepter."

"Wait, so you _are_ leaving?" asks Tony, his eyes darting from Loki to Thor and back to Loki. "Didn't you say—"

"You can't help him," Thor cuts in. "And neither can I. Not here, on this world."

He storms out of the tower, swings Mjölnir and hurls it upwards until the hammer propels him off the ground and onto the roof. Tony comes flying after him and Selvig stares at them wide-eyed, his breathing still heavy. "Let's get you down, Doctor," says Tony as he picks the fellow scientist up.

Thor puts his hand through Mjölnir's leather strap and then reaches into the machine Erik has built and he pulls out the cube with the hammer dangling from his arm. The Tesseract is still glowing and Thor can feel the ancient force locked within stir against his palms in search for the magic flowing through his veins. The scepter's tip is still glowing as well and he narrows his eyes at the accursed thing before he grabs it as well and leaps down onto the level of the landing spot where Erik Selvig now stands by the glass doors, rooted to the spot with his apprehensive eyes fixed on Loki.

"He's not a threat anymore," Tony assures him. "At least not right now."

"And we are actually on our way out," says Thor. "I apologize for always bringing so much chaos and misery with me when I come here but I will take Loki away now and, hopefully, we shall not bother you again in the future."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s not gonna be happy if they hear that you took the cube and the scepter off our hands," Natasha points out.

"The Tesseract has been here long enough," Thor replies and then kneels down in front of his brother. "Listen, I know you don't want to go back to Asgard but we need to get these weapons out of Midgard. They are too dangerous to stay here and we have to bring them to Asgard, so they won't do any more damage here, do you understand?"

A vague nod.

"And after that, we can go wherever you want and do whatever you want to do but we need to go to Asgard first, okay?" Thor looks at Loki, waiting for his approval because he does not want to take him against his will even though he knows it is the right thing to do since Midgardian healers can't possibly help him and he can't possibly go back to that monster in that hellish place.

Another vague nod, this one hardly perceptible.

"Was that a nod?" Thor asks.

"I think so, yeah," Tony agrees.

Thor blows out a breath. "Okay, put your hands on the cube then, brother," he says but Loki does not move a muscle. Thor places the cube on his legs, takes his brother's hand and places it onto the Tesseract. Loki shivers but his stare remains blank and unfocused. "Do not let go, please," Thor whispers as he places his hand over that of his brother and tries to tap into the signature of the Tesseract's magic. When he senses it pulsating through the veins of the cube, he glances up at the humans and says, quietly, "Farewell," before he visualizes his mother's chambers in front of his inner eye. The cube complies with his silent command after a few heartbeats and a cloud of blue envelops him and Loki and the last thing Thor sees from the corner of his eye is Tony Stark, who looks almost disappointed that they are leaving, and then the energy enshrouding them takes them away through space that does not feel like space at all and before he can really clothe any rational thought in words, they are back on Asgard and Thor can hear Frigga's outcry.

"By all the Realms!" Frigga is screaming as she rushes up to them and drops to her knees in front of them, sweeping her boys into her arms. "You are back! You brought him home! The Norns bless you, my sons!"

"Yes, but …" Thor's voice breaks as he sees the expression of naked terror materialize on his mother's face when she notices that Loki has withdrawn so deep into his own mind that he does not even react to her presence. He sits, still unmoving, still unfocused, with hollow cheeks and dead eyes and unwashed hair.

"Loki?" Frigga whispers and her gaze falls on the Tesseract in her sons' hands and then on the scepter in Thor's. Tears pool into her eyes and when Thor sees her cry, he can finally cry too—because he is home with his mother now and she will find a way to reach Loki, yes, she will, because no harm can come to them if she is there protecting her sons because that is how things have always been she has always kept them safe and she must keep Loki safe now, _she must_, _she __**must**_ _and she will_ _**there is no other way**_—and his own tears spill out of his eyes, and he drops the cube, the scepter, the hammer, and he rises to his feet and paces the length of the room, his eyes on his helpless, broken, vulnerable little brother, and he chokes on a sob.

"Wh-what happened?" Frigga asks softly and he can hear the reluctance in her words, can hear the fear of the answer. She has stretched out her hand and is running her fingers through Loki's greasy hair but his brother still doesn't move. He doesn't even glance up at the mother he once loved so dearly.

The sight rams a knife into his heart and twists it until Thor has to gasp for breath. "He was tortured," he whispers and his voice is vibrating with rage and fear.

Frigga exhales a trembling breath as she cups Loki's cheek in her palm but Loki does not even as much as stir.

"He was tortured in s-some s-sort of cave, I don't know, it was barren planet, maybe an asteroid belt or something and his mind … his mind … whoever found him, he poisoned his mind with that scepter and he told him that … that …" His voice breaks and he buries his head in his hands and Frigga rises to her feet to comfort him, gently squeezing his arm.

"He told him that we never loved him because he's a monster, and that I … that I tried to k-kill him because he is … Jötunn, that I … t-tossed him into the abyss." Thor wipes his nose with the back of his hand. "I reached out to him until that presence was gone from his head but now he is like _this_ and I …"

"Has he said anything?" asks Frigga.

"Only a few things," Thor blubbers out. "He didn't want to come here. He wanted to go … back to the monster who did that to him. And he knows who I am and he remembers Asgard but I don't think … I mean … I'm not sure if he remembers himself."

Frigga nods absentmindedly, her gaze flicking to the scepter. "The Mind Stone," she murmurs.

Thor's tears slowly run dry as he tries to figure out what that means. "What?"

The queen picks up the scepter, thoughtfully inspects the blue gem between the two gleaming blades and chants a spell that shatters the containment vessel and reveals a sparkling yellow gem that floats in the air. "Just what I feared."

Thor swallows when he hears the awe in her voice. "Wh-what is this?"

"This, my son, is one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in our universe, which is unparalleled in its destructive capabilities," Frigga explains. "The Mind Stone contains a highly advanced intelligence at its core that operates similarly to a sentient mind. It can grant sentience to artificial beings but, more importantly, this stone grants whoever wields it complete control over the hearts and minds of others." She glances down at Loki, and exhales another shaky breath.

Thor follows her gaze and the sight of his brother's formidable mind wrecked like this still takes his breath away. "He had the scepter with him when he came to Midgard and he used it to control the mortals but they … their minds haven't shut down like his."

"If he has been under the stone's influence for this whole year," Frigga begins in a teary voice, "I fear that the stone might have depleted the essence of his mind." She glances at the gem. "The Loki we know might be in there."

Thor gulps.

Frigga kneels down in front of her youngest. "Loki, honey? Can you hear me?"

He gives a clumsy nod.

"Do you know where you are?"

He raises his chin and tilts his head to the side a little, just a little, his empty eyes sweeping the royal chambers. "Not where … I belong," Loki whispers.

"And where is that?" Frigga asks and Thor admires her for her ability to stay so calm when her heart must be threatening to burst inside her chest at the sight of her tormented son.

Loki's lips quiver and he opens them to speak but no sound comes out.

"I'm sorry if this hurts you, my love, but we need to find out what is happening to you," Frigga whispers before she places her hands against Loki's temples and chants a spell. A circular surface materializes from thin air, crackling into life with light blue sparks. Loki grimaces but then that content, melancholic smile creeps back onto his lips and Thor can see how he derives comfort from the pain his mother's spell is causing him. "Are those his memories?" Thor asks.

Frigga gives a half-nod. "Yes. This spell can show …" Her words trail off.

"What?" Thor's heart gives a lurch as he glances from Loki to the projection that remains dark to his mother and back to the projection.

"I can't see them," Frigga whispers. "He … is shutting me out." Her lips gape open in astonishment. "Loki, please. You need to let me in. You need to show us what happened to you so that we can help you."

Loki jerks away and then crawls away, whispering, "No help," and then he slowly, carefully, sits up straight, his dead eyes landing on the cube Thor has dropped on the floor. "No help from Asgard."

And before Thor or Frigga can say anything, Loki's fingers curl around the Tesseract and then he vanishes in a puff of blue-black smoke.

* * *

**Note: Way to go, Thor, right? *deep sigh* I mean, we all know he means well but he messes up anyway out of sheer despair and now things absolutely turned to shit and hey, aren't we all here for it?**


End file.
